you might not like surveys, but you might need one.
by steven e. sacks
while the consideration of succession planning has taken up a lot of airtime in recent years, there is something even more important to consider and that is how to attract and retain talent.
more: performance reviews: no need to pull teeth | have you gauged your staff’s enthusiasm? | why knowledge maintenance is key | retention starts with the hiring interview | the new way to handle exit interviews
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questions most often asked by a cpa firm managing partner when someone leaves:
- did we see this coming?
- did he/she express any dissatisfaction?
- do you know if it was a money or promotion issue?
- was there something we could have done to head this off?
there are multiple problems with this. first, why after the fact were these questions asked? was there a system in place to regularly gauge employee satisfaction? did the firm ever survey the employees on their attitudes about work, personalities and culture?
more important than employee satisfaction – and a much bigger issue – is employee engagement. when a cpa firm is small, maybe with a single office, it is easier to have a handle on the views and attitudes of employees. simply bringing someone into an office for a confidential, yet informal chat, can help reveal existing or potential problems. how often does this really happen?
“dispirited, unmotivated, unappreciated workers cannot compete in a highly competitive world.” – francis hesselbein
as a firm or business grows in revenue size and increases its headcount and number of offices, it becomes much harder to take a regular pulse on the employee engagement. when this happens, you can miss critical signs, such as if the firm is communicating timely and relevant information to its staff, and if the firm’s overall mission and purpose is evident to all staff.
what is meant by engagement?
the looming challenge for cpa firms in the foreseeable future is to recruit and keep top talent. an engaged firm focuses on its staff, clients and lenders. the firm will ensure that each staff member
- is given an opportunity to develop skills,
- is given a career roadmap and
- is offered opportunities to learn from partners.
an added bonus would be for current staff to tout to new candidates the benefits of working in the firm. the firm would also desire that your current clients sing your firm’s praises to potential clients. finally, firm leaders want to confirm that their partner group is aligned with the goals of the firm, provides useful feedback to their direct reports and are supportive of the staff’s career goals.
what you don’t know can hurt you
historically, cpa firms are loath to conduct surveys of their people. “all too often, firms think they can do the surveys themselves, or more accurately, believe there’s nothing to be gained from the survey because they don’t have a turnover problem,” said lee eisenstaedt, co-founder of chicago-based leading with courage academy. “these are not the only reasons,” he observed. “there’s the reality that firm leaders are afraid their employees will only focus on the negative things and what is revealed will force them to deal with areas that need to be addressed.”
from his experience, eisenstaedt knows that these beliefs don’t hold water. his exposure to firms that operate with blissful ignorance shows it will only serve to delay the inevitable, whether it is the loss of key employees or important clients, or a general malaise that blankets the entire firm.
“i have found one of the biggest things firm leaders don’t want to discover is that their leadership skills aren’t as good as they think they are,” he noted. “adding to this angst is the possibility that the survey’s results will create expectations among the employees to change things, which will take time, and the worst of it, is that any corrections made will take away from what otherwise would be billable time.” eisenstaedt further noted, “there will be behaviors partners will have to change or actions they will have to take, such as coaching or resolving disputes. the bottom line is that hearing the truth can be painful.”
silence is not golden
findings show that there is a direct correlation between poor internal communication and reduced motivation. by not having an open channel of communication, or at least encouraging one, firms will only allow issues to fester until they cannot be easily resolved. “according to a study conducted by about.com (since rebranded as dotdash.com), a lack of transparent communication is the number one reason employees leave their jobs,” eisenstaedt explained. “a lack of transparency about how the firm is doing, combined with no guidance on employee performance or a career track, is a formula for leadership failure.”
it is crucial for firm leaders to have their finger on the pulse of the firm. an informal discussion here, a quick chat there, can provide a collection of business intelligence on matters, most of which are lurking just below the surface. “there is a wealth of data to collect by asking, listening and learning,” said eisenstaedt. “two major red flags that can appear are low morale and reduced productivity. the latter can easily be noticed, given the available digital dashboards firms have come to rely on. the connection of low morale to reduced productivity is evident.” he noted that employees of firms and companies need to be given good reasons to stay in their jobs.
there is an obvious linkage between the reduced productivity and the eventual loss of employees. “it is a known fact that people leave their firms because they work for ‘lousy’ managers and leaders,” eisenstaedt said. “another factor is a greater tolerance for poor performance and sticking too long with underperformers, which results in managers leaving. finally, keeping c- and d-level clients is another reason.” if no one speaks up, irrespective of staff level, the problem just continues to get worse.
a survey may be awful-tasting medicine, but it’s still medicine
taking the first step in any endeavor is always the hardest, and the development and issuance of a survey is no exception. “why this is such a battle is that we find many firms don’t want to take the time to learn the real reason behind the loss of an employee or client,” said eisenstaedt. “we even find many partners are reluctant to inform the firm when these losses occur, which skews the retention and ‘win’ metric.” there are reasons for this lack of curiosity and interest in learning from these events. added eisenstaedt, “these events are usually the same reasons firms don’t want to understand employee engagement.”
as is often the case, fees and salaries are the reasons attributed to the loss of clients and staff, respectively. but these are rarely the primary factors. to find out the real reason(s), eisenstaedt emphasized the need to have someone unrelated to the client or staff member reach out to learn what the firm could have done differently. “this person could be another partner or an independent third party. it’s then critical that the insights be shared with the team and other partners so everyone can learn from events.”
you’ve got the data. now what?
a big challenge is converting the survey findings into action plans. this can only happen if the leadership team is committed to acting on the results. “they’ll receive plenty of insights into what employees need from their bosses and leaders to get the most from them at work,” eisenstaedt observed. “the best action plan focuses on two or three initiatives that are communicated across the organization.” he noted that it should be mandatory to share the progress made on these initiatives with all employees and discuss any existing obstacles.
the importance of sharing progress with all employees should not be ignored. “a firm needs to share the survey’s purpose with everyone and be consistently transparent,” eisenstaedt maintained. “addressing key issues with only some staff levels will not lead to the best result and neither will glossing over their urgency or how they will be approached.”
there are unmistakable signs that a firm is committed to following up on the survey’s findings. employees who are present, focused and energized are signs that things are heading in the right direction. said eisenstaedt, “commitment is visible in how partners, staff and clients work together to make decisions and that setting priorities are consistent with the firm’s mission, vision and objectives. i also wouldn’t overlook adherence to the values of the firm as a signal of commitment.”